Introduction
In his book, Jack Donnelly discusses human rights and their application worldwide. He starts by stating that human rights are unchanging, timeless and ultimately unattainable universally. Although many might think that human rights are universal, it is just an ideal situation and not the reality on the ground. Many nations have joined the international human rights covenant and others approved the human rights agreements just for normalcy. However, human rights are not respected internationally as one would think (Clapham. & MyiLibrary, 2007).
Discussion
Human rights are rights one has by just been human. Grammatically, right can mean the right thing to do but according to the law, it means what an individual is entitled to. Nations are governed by human rights and incase of violation of one’s right you can always sue someone. Although human rights are important aspects to everybody’s life, people always refer to them when they want to assert a certain statement, when showing people how should behave in a situation or in objective enjoyment; when one executes a right just because it is mandatory and a norm. For example by buying an item, one is supposed to pay the seller. That is objective enjoyment. Any violations are punishable through a certain remedial logic (Kabasakal, 2006).
Human rights relate to the way people do things normally. By just been human, rich or poor all are entitled to the same human rights. They are also universal and alienable in that they apply to all Homo sapiens regardless of their behavior. In cases where a serial killer has raped and murdered over two hundred children, the same human rights apply to him/her. In the media, people in some situations have been denied human rights for the actions they have done. In some countries, people are executed as a way to threaten criminals and ensure the security and peace of the majority in the country. Although they represent what good should be done or observed to people, they are different from values. For example, although a good gesture, it is not a right to love ones parents. However, love is a value and virtue that people ought to have as a way of ensuring peaceful coexistence.
Human rights are in grained with human nature and they help people keeping in check and reinforcing their morals. In work environments, even the racists have a moral obligation to treat those racially different with respect and the dignity they deserve. Otherwise, in case they racially abuse them legal actions can be taken against them in the court of law. They would in turn face serious penalties (Spagnoli, 2007).
Although the universality of human rights has not yet been achieved, globalization is on the forefront of ensuring that human rights are universal in reality and not ideally. Cultures have been phased out by globalization ensuring that everybody enjoys similar rights. However, in some of the backward cultures that refuse globalization, it is and will be difficult to communicate human rights to them. With the international community saying that all human rights are equal, it contradicts itself by selecting some rights as more important than others. Internationally the values of human rights are disregarded and stating that some are important than others is mere hypocrisy.
Conclusion
In the future, I would like to study and specialize on international laws and relations. This will help serve the great interest I have in advocating for human rights worldwide.
References
Clapham, A., & MyiLibrary. (2007). Human rights: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kabasakal, A. Z. F. (2006). Human rights worldwide: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.: ABC-CLIO.
Spagnoli, F. (2007). Real human rights. New York: Algora Pub.
